


Diet, exercise and butterflies

by therune



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-08
Updated: 2012-04-08
Packaged: 2017-11-03 06:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/378390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therune/pseuds/therune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piper needs alittle bit of help to get in shape.<br/>Asking James still was a rotten idea,</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diet, exercise and butterflies

It was time, Piper decided. Time for a change, a new image, a new Piper.  
It felt natural, the ideas for sonic weaponry just flowed into his mind, and building them felt right. And while it seemed to be cheesy, it felt like a butterfly hatching from its cocoon. Not that he would say that in public, he’d never hear the end of it.  
And while the Rogues just stayed the same, he needed a change. He had changed.

One day, he went to Gambi’s with a few ideas for a new suit. Gone with the tights, tunic, cape, fairy boots (not that any Rogue called them that, seeing how half of them wore them and would never admit to having anything with a “fairy” in front of it…except for James, but he was a carny kid and therefore eternally damaged when it came to fashion, shame and cultural expectation) and the silly hat. Looking back, he felt like Peter Pan from a stage musical. It was time for renewal, for a new era.

But when Gambi fetched the measuring tape, Piper looked at himself, sucked in his stomach (when had he gotten so out of shape?) and shook his head. The new suit would have to wait, Piper needed to change a bit more.  
He had never had problems with his weight, so what had brought this on? A little mean voice in his head supplied gleefully that it had probably been a combination of lack of exercise (nobody suspected that being a full-time villain was equal to a very good workout, and since reforming, there had been little in his life that was equal to robbing banks or running from the speedster), moping about his now ex-boyfriend and the new ex-boyfriend and then Earl (whom Piper decided not to call ex-boyfriend, because whatever they were, boyfriends was the wrong word for it), and the donut place down the street of his new apartment.  
He was determined to get his weight under control, but he figured he might need a little help.  
Whatever posessed him to ask James though, was definetely a part he needed to change.

On a superficial level, James was handsome, incredibly fit and in a fantastic shape. Piper should have remembered that - on a deeper level - James was also highly immature and just plain weird sometimes.  
“Cheerios? Your diet advice is …cheerios?”  
“Yep, taste great and I eat them every day.”  
“But they’re mostly chemicals, and full of sugar and plain unhealthy!”  
James lifted his shirt. (Really, when is that a suitable answer to anything?)  
“See these abs? Cheerio based.”  
And what if he had nice abs (and wow, although his costume never left very much to imagination, this was still better than anything he imagined) and was sort of gorgeous, Piper was still doubtful.  
“How about we talk about exercise? I bet you’re a master at that.”  
Flattery always worked on James.  
However, after hearing the description of and seeing some of the exercises that James claimed worked wonders, Piper was asking himself if James was actually pranking him.  
“See? It’s easy!” James said, hanging upside down from a shelf.  
“Are you kidding me?”  
“What? Why?”  
“Do you realize that not all people are acrobats?”  
“Huh… now that you mention it, that was a dumb idea. It’s just…people don’t normally ask me for advice. And I wanted to give the best advice I had….huh. Maybe you’re better off reading a book or something.”  
And then Piper saw through the words and the actions, and realized that James seemed a little bit lost. While everything around him seemed to change, James never did. And, while it still sounded incredibly corny, maybe Piper wasn’t the only one who needed a bit of help with becoming a butterfly.

It took longer than he thought (all those magazines praising diets that would make you lose 20 pounds in a month were liars), was more complicated than he imagined, but in the end, he managed. They managed.  
And when Piper was walking out of Gambi’s shop with a bag that contained his new costume - safely hidden under three sweater vests and several pairs of socks - he met up with James in a café.  
“Like the new look, by the way,” Piper told him over a chai latte.  
James beamed at him and whipped his hair over his shoulder. Of course his hair that had been a mess of blonde curls had turned into a golden mane which looked far too good in a ponytail. And the new leather jacket made him even more attractive.  
Piper would have been jealous if he hadn’t gained a new shred of self confidence. And it often sounded like a mental “fuck yeah, I’m awesome”.  
A new Piper for a new era.


End file.
